1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electronic apparatus capable of executing wireless communication and a program applied to the apparatus and, more particularly, to an electronic apparatus having a station discovery function of discovering a new apparatus capable of wireless communication and a program applied to the apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
There have recently been developed new wireless communication systems for wirelessly connecting electronic apparatuses. One of wireless communication systems of this type is Bluetooth®, which is a short-range wireless communication standard targeting connection between various electronic apparatuses including a computer.
Bluetooth® defines a station discovery function. The station discovery function is to discover a new device capable of wireless communication. The station discovery function can discover another electronic apparatus, which exists within the wireless communicable area of a given electronic apparatus.
The station discovery function is implemented by the following mechanism. A given electronic apparatus transmits a station discovery request (Inquiry) by using a radio signal, and another electronic apparatus which has received the station discovery request responds to it. At this time, the station discovery function includes the following processes. First, a station discovery request (Inquiry) is issued to acquire the address of an apparatus, which responds to the request. Next, a device name acquisition request (Name discovery) is issued to acquire the name (Device Names) of the respondent apparatus.
To start communication in a wireless network according to a wireless transmission method such as Bluetooth®, communicable apparatuses are searched for by the station discovery function, and a communication partner apparatus are selected from the searched apparatuses. In a conventional device search, the device names of searched apparatuses are acquired and presented (displayed in a selectable way) as connectable apparatuses to the user as disclosed in Japanese Patent Application KOKAI Publication No. 2002 281041. However, the conventional method takes a long time until searched apparatuses are presented as connectable ones to the user after the start of device search, resulting in poor operability.
As described above, the conventional method suffers poor operability because a long time is taken until searched apparatuses are displayed as connectable ones in a selectable way in the device search preceding the start of the communication.